Our linking to this writing
does not necessarily mean that we at Precious Testimonies
agree with everything written exactly the way it has been
worded in the following
writing about this topic. However, this does not in
any way imply that we don't find this writing extremely well
written and greatly valuable regarding the topic of
Sanctification.

-- Norm Rasmussen,
Director, Precious Testimonies

The
doctrine of Sanctification is doubtless one of the most
misunderstood doctrines of our historic Christian faith.
Many Christians either withdraw from it completely or else
they associate it with fanatical fringe groups. The result
has been its continued neglect or mistreatment.

Now I am aware of the fact that this attempt to expound
Sanctification places me on controversial ground. If my
reader will heed my plea for charity, I promise not to be
quarrelsome. Moreover, I do not want to bring thunder and
lightning crashing down upon my own head. If there is going
to be any disagreement among us,
please let us disagree
agreeably. We are in a warfare, not against each other, but
against sin. The very fact that we are saved people should
tell us that the doctrine of Sanctification does not belong
in the ring of polemical pugilism.

If
there is a basic error, I believe it is the failure to grasp
the meaning of the term Sanctification. On one
occasion I gave to my class in a Bible College the
assignment to write a definition of Sanctification. Many of
the students stressed the idea of purification from moral
evil. Several were more explicit in making Sanctification a
state of holiness in which it was not possible for a saved
person to sin. Not posse non peccare (able not to
sin), but non posse peccare (not able to sin). Now
the students did not learn this from the Bible. The
Scriptures do not teach that Sanctification is the
improvement of the unregenerate nature, nor that it is the
eradication of that nature thereby rendering it impossible
for a child of God to commit sin. I am not suggesting that
there is no experiential aspect in Sanctification in which
practical holiness will manifest itself in the Christian’s
life. Most assuredly does the work of Sanctification in the
believer involve victory over sin in his daily life.
Sanctification is not merely a single act, but a continuous
process.

The
basic meaning of the verb sanctify (Gr. hagiazo) is to
separate, or to set apart. Possible the latter term comes
closest to the Greek word. Sanctification, then, is that
sovereign act of God whereby He sets apart a person, a
place, or an object for Himself in order that He might
accomplish His purpose in the world by means of that person,
place, or object.

Having stated the meaning and a definition of the term, let
us look at some Scriptures where the word is used:

(1)
A day can be sanctified. “And God blessed the seventh day,
and sanctified it . . .” (Genesis 2:3).

(2)
A building and its contents can be sanctified. God said,
“And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the
congregation and the altar . . .” (Exodus 39:44). “And it
came to pass on the day that Moses had fully set up the
tabernacle, and had anointed it, and sanctified it, and all
the instruments thereof, both the altar and all the vessels
thereof, and had anointed them, and sanctified them”
(Numbers 7:1).

(3)
The house in which a man lives can be sanctified. “And when
a man shall sanctify his house to be holy unto the
LORD, then the priest shall estimate it, whether it be good
or bad: as the priest shall estimate it, so shall it stand”
(Leviticus 27:14).

(4)
A mountain can be sanctified. “And Moses said unto the LORD,
The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for Thou chargedst
us, saying, Set bounds about the Mount, and sanctify
it” (Exodus 19:23).

In
all of the above passages the meaning of the word
Sanctify is to set apart for holy purposes. However, a
day, a tabernacle, a house, or a mountain cannot sin. These
items are neither moral nor immoral; they are amoral. It
seems quite clear, then, that Sanctification in these
instances does not mean a state of holiness in which it is
not possible for sin to enter.

An
interesting passage in the book of Isaiah shows that men can
sanctify themselves (set themselves apart) to do evil. “They
that sanctify and purify themselves, in the gardens behind
one tree in the midst, eating swine’s flesh, and the
abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD”
(Isaiah 66:17).

We
know that our Lord Jesus Christ was sinless and therefore
free from all moral impurity, and yet He prayed, “And for
their sakes, I sanctify myself . . .” (John 17:19). In this
statement He was simply testifying that He had set apart
Himself to fulfill the holy purpose for which He came into
the world.

Sanctification is used with reference to God. “And I will
sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the
heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and
the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, saith the Lord
GOD, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes”
(Ezekiel 36:23). God is here telling of a day, still future,
when He will set Himself apart as the one true and living
God, and that all peoples in the earth will acknowledge Him
as such.

And
now, on the background of these preliminary thoughts, let us
pursue our study in the doctrine of Sanctification in its
relation to the believer in Jesus Christ.

Preparatory Sanctification

By
Preparatory Sanctification we mean that initial sovereign
work of God preliminary to any experience in the life of the
person who is to be sanctified. The Apostle Peter wrote,
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father,
through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and
peace, be multiplied” (I Peter 1:2). Here we see all three
Persons in the Godhead active in Sanctification.

Before an unsaved person becomes a child of God, he is
“elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.”
Election and Foreknowledge are of necessity the preparatory
work of God prior to experiential Sanctification in man.
Peter does not here explain the doctrines of Election and
Foreknowledge; he merely states the fact that God the Father
made a choice before ever God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit acted in behalf of our Sanctification. Divine
foreknowledge is not limited to mere foresight of what men
will do at some future time. It is God’s foresight and
choice linked together with His own plan and purpose.

God
said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew
thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I
sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the
nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). This is a clear illustration of the
Preparatory Sanctification of God the Father in Election and
Foreknowledge. In the Divine plan God set apart Jeremiah for
His work before ever Jeremiah was born, separating and
appointing him to be a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah
resisted the appointment on the ground of his immaturity and
insufficiency, but God assured him that He knew what He was
doing. Surely He would not set apart a man for a ministry
without providing the enablement to carry out all of the
responsibilities attached thereto. “Before thou camest forth
out of the womb I sanctified thee.” That is Preparatory
Sanctification.

The
Apostle Paul wrote similarly, “But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His
grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him
among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh
and blood” (Galatians 1:15, 16). Paul was set apart for the
ministry long before the cradle. His conversion, commission
and career as an apostle were foreseen and foreordained
before he was born. It was all according to God’s eternal
purpose and grace. It was dignifying to Paul’s office as an
apostle to know that it all did not “just happen,” but that
he was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world
(See: Ephesians 1:14). The Galatians must know that he was no
self-styled, self-appointed apostle, but rather divinely set
apart. The statement that God separated Paul from his
mother’s womb is more than a reference to God’s providential
care of him at birth. It refers to Preparatory
Sanctification. Even though, as Saul of Tarsus, he waged a
fierce warfare against the church, the Lord ruled and
overruled, bringing him to the place where Paul himself knew
that God had a plan for his life.

God
set apart Jacob before he was born, in preference to his
twin brother, Esau (Genesis 25:23, cf. Romans 9:10-13);
Samson before he was conceived (Judges 13:3-5); and John the
Baptist prior to his conception (Luke 1:13-17). And I am
convinced that my own conversion and call to the ministry
were of God’s choosing and not mine. It was no mere
coincidence that I was present at 3314 I Street in the city
of Philadelphia on December 25, 1927, the day I was saved.
It was no mere incident when I enrolled as a student in The
Philadelphia School of the Bible in 1935. I can testify with
Paul that God put me into the ministry and has enabled me to
continue (I Timothy 1:12). This is Preparatory
Sanctification, that work of God the Father in which He
sovereignly selects men and sets them apart before they are
born into this world.

Before leaving this point of Preparatory Sanctification, let
us have a look at some verses which refer to our Lord and
His earthly ministry. When Jesus spoke on one occasion to
the Jews, He referred to Himself as the One “Whom the Father
sanctified, and sent into the world” (John 10:36). We
know that this statement from His lips had nothing to do
with moral behavior because “in Him is no sin” (I John 3:5).
What He said is that the Father set Him apart and sent Him
from Heaven to earth to accomplish the divine mission of
redemption. Therefore, he could say, “And for their sakes I
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through
the truth” (John 17:19). He had set Himself apart for the
purpose for which the Father had set Him apart. In the
Father’s plan for the Son we see the principle of
Preparatory Sanctification.

Positional Sanctification

From this point in our study we will consider
Sanctification, not in relation to places or objects, but
only to people. By Positional Sanctification we mean that
act of God the Holy Spirit in which He sets apart every
saved person. It is the first step in the experience of the
believer. The preparatory work has been going on for some
time according to Divine plan, but now that work becomes
effective in the life of the individual person. He is now
actually set apart as God’s possession and for God’s
purpose. “This people have I formed for Myself; they shall shew forth My praise”
(Isaiah 43:21). Positional
Sanctification is the fact and act of belonging to God.

It
is important to keep in mind the fact that all three Persons
in the Godhead are active in the believer’s Sanctification.
Man was created in the likeness and image of God, and he was
God’s possession by creative right. But Adam’s sin broke the
relationship between God and himself. In Preparatory
Sanctification God included the means whereby fallen man
could be restored to a right relationship with Himself. And
what was that divinely provided means? The Blood of Christ!
God could not set apart an unclean sinner for His possession
and purpose, therefore, He purchased and purified the sinner
by the Blood of His Son. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He
might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
without the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). “By the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ
once for all” (Hebrews 10:10). The once-for-all sacrifice of
God’s Son purchased the once-for-allsanctification for the
sinner. “For by one offering He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Apart from the atoning
Blood of Christ, man could not be set apart unto God. But
the moment we receive God’s Son we are said to be “in Him,”
a phrase used more than seventy times in Paul’s Epistles
denoting the believer’s unaltered and unalterable position.
Thus we are sanctified by the Blood of Christ.

Who
then are the sanctified? All who have received Jesus Christ
have been “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in
Jesus Christ” (Jude 1). This is every Christian’s position,
independent of the length of time one has been saved, how
much or how little one knows about the Bible, or how
spiritual that person might be. So if you have trusted
Christ to save you, then you have been set apart once for
all; you are God’s sanctified one. Now I am not suggesting
that the only sanctification a Christian can experience and
enjoy is that which is positional, or credited to him at the
time he is born again. But I am insisting that there is a
Positional Sanctification which was purchased by Christ’s
atoning blood and deposited to the believer at conversion.

Let
us look now at the work of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s
Positional Sanctification. The First Corinthian Epistle
contains some pregnant passages on this theme. “And such
were some of you; but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified,
but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by
the Spirit of our God” (I Corinthians 6:11). Notice the
order; they are said to have been Sanctified before they
were Justified. Earlier in this Epistle Sanctification
precedes it, and the Holy Spirit prepares the heart of the
individual, making him ready to receive it.

Some weeks before my acceptance of Jesus Christ I passed
through a real struggle, restless and troubled because of a
sense of guilt. With each passing day the burden of my sin
became increasingly heavy. Then that Christmas Day arrived
when my heart eagerly responded to God’s Word and I was born
again, Justified. As I look back upon that experience, I
know now that, during those weeks of struggling before I was
saved, the Holy Spirit was doing His work of preparing me
for the great transaction. The moment of the Spirit’s
regenerating work in me climaxed His work of Positional
Sanctification. Now after 45 years of Christian experience,
that work resulting in my being set apart has remained
unchanged. Like the Corinthian believers, and all true
believers, I was at that moment justified by God.

Beware of the false teaching that urges the believer to seek
Positional Sanctification after he has been saved.
Positional Sanctification is not a second work of grace to
be sought subsequent to the experience of Regeneration.
Positional Sanctification takes place at the time of
Regeneration. If you have not been sanctified, then you are
not saved. The behavior of some of the Christians at Corinth
was anything but commendable. Paul wrote, “For ye are yet
carnal; for whereas there is among you envying, and strife,
and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (I
Corinthians 3:3). But then he added, “For by one Spirit are
we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or
Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made
to drink into one Spirit” (I Corinthians 12:13). Notice it
does not say that some of them were baptized into the Body,
but that all were. This baptizing work of the Holy Spirit is
synonymous with Positional Sanctification. The Body here is
the Church (see Ephesians 1:22, 23). There is no other way
of one getting into Christ’s Church apart from the baptizing
work of the Holy Spirit. At the time of Regeneration He sets
the believer apart, sanctifying him positionally. Some of us
do not behave at all times as a believer should, but our
behaviour does not alter our position in the Body.

Another significant passage appears in the opening of the
First Corinthian letter. The letter is addressed “unto the
church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints . . .”
(1:2). Two words in this verse stem from a common root; they
are the verb “sanctified” (Greek hagiaso) and the
noun “saints” (Greek hagios). The verb sanctified
means set apart, and the corresponding noun “saints” are
those persons who have been set apart, the set-apart ones.
Paul is here addressing all believers in the Corinthian
Assembly, not only those who were spiritual but the carnal
ones also. Both the carnal and the spiritual are included in
the sanctified saints. When they were saved they were set
apart through the operation of the Holy Spirit. That
operation effected an eternal union between the Sanctifier
and the sanctified, “For both He that sanctifieth and they
who are sanctified are all of one . . .” (Hebrews 2:11).

The
setting apart of the believing sinner as God’s possession
and for God’s purpose is associated with the Holy Spirit’s
entering the body at Regeneration. The unsaved man is
spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), “alienated from the life
of God” (Ephesians 4:18). Jesus said, “I am come that they
might have life” (John 10:10). But how does one receive this
life? The answer is, When he receives the Holy Spirit. When
we were saved we became “partakers of the divine nature”
(II
Peter 1:4). God the Holy Spirit entered the body to take up
His permanent abode. Jesus said, “And I will pray the
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may
abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither
knoweth Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”
(John 14:16, 17). The Day of Pentecost marked the beginning
of the fulfillment of our Lord’s promise, so that now every
born-again person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Through His
incoming He sets apart that believing one.

Child of God, the Holy Spirit is in you. He has set
you apart for a definite purpose, and that purpose is God’s
perfect will for your life. And be very certain that He has
a plan for you. The fact that He is in you is the plain
teaching of scripture. The Christian assembly at Corinth was
an assembly of saints, saved persons, set-apart persons, but
not all of the saints were saintly in their behavior. There
were disputes and divisions among the brethren. Covetousness
and carnality had crept in among them. And yet they were
instructed that each believer in the assembly was indwelt by
the Holy Spirit. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God,
and that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is
in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (I
Corinthians 6:19). The Holy Spirit dwells in the Church
corporately as well as in each member individually and
personally.

This is Positional Sanctification, and it is the portion of
every regenerated person. “Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:9). “And
because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, where we
cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). “He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, Who hath also given
unto us His Holy Spirit” (I Thessalonians 4:8). “That good
thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost
which dwelleth in us” (II Timothy 1:14).

The
above mentioned verses from God’s Word show clearly that
Sanctification is the state predetermined by God for every
believer, into which He calls them by His grace, and in
which they commence their Christian life and experience.
Beloved brethren, think of it! God has separated us unto
Himself. “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for
you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the
beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of
the Spirit and belief of the truth” (II Thessalonians 2:13).
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption; That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord”
(I Corinthians 1:30,
31). Are you rejoicing in His
imputed Sanctification?

Somewhere I heard or read of a tragedy at sea in which a
young fisherman was washed overboard and lost. All efforts
to recover his body were futile. He left his young widow and
eight-year-old son penniless. Their godly pastor who
conducted the funeral service was deeply moved by the
tragedy. After he returned from the memorial service he went
to the local bank and opened a savings account in the name
of the orphaned boy. From time to time he added to the
account, which continued to bear interest. Ten years later,
the boy graduated from high school and at the commencement
exercises he was awarded a scholarship in a university
hundreds of miles from home. One day the pastor visited the
home to congratulate the boy and his mother. The mother
expressed to the pastor her appreciation for the
scholarship, but added the lack of necessary funds for
travel, clothing, etc. would prevent them from accepting it.
Whereupon the pastor advised her to go to the bank and
withdraw the necessary money from the boy’s savings account.
The mother said nothing but felt keenly disappointed with
the pastor’s remarks. Several weeks later, another pastoral
call brought up the subject again. Once more the mother
expressed her regrets that her son was unable to accept the
scholarship. Again the pastor told her to go to the bank and
withdraw the necessary amount from the boy’s account. Within
herself she thought, If this is supposed to be a joke, it is
in very poor taste. But not many days before the deadline,
she went to the bank, and after inquiring she learned that
the money was there, deposited in her son’s name by another
person. Her boy had not earned the money. It was credited,
posted to his account.

Even so, when we were regenerated, there was deposited, or
imputed, to us
the holiness of Jesus Christ, God’s gift of Sanctification.
The Holy Spirit is a gift, not given discriminately to some
believers, but rather to all believers, as the following
passages teach: John 7:37-39; Romans 5:5; I Corinthians
2:12; II Corinthians 5:5. No distinctions are as much as
hinted at in these verses, nor would we expect any because
of the very nature of a gift. A gift is not a reward nor a
debt nor a payment for service. The gift of the Holy Spirit
is given to every believer; therefore, every believer has
been positionally sanctified permanently.

Some Christians believe sincerely that when a child of God
sins, his Positional Sanctification is lost by the Holy
Spirit withdrawing Himself from that one. This viewpoint is
untenable. Those who hold this view are in error. Our Lord
said that the Holy Spirit would “abide with you forever”
(John 14:16). If sin in a believer could cause the Holy
Spirit to depart from that believer, then that same sin
could cause the person who committed it to lose his
salvation, and if one could lose his salvation, he never
could be saved again. (See Hebrews 6:4-6). The believer’s
Positional Sanctification is a Permanent Sanctification
because of the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
There was no discrimination among the mixed multitude of
believers in Corinth. The carnal Christians were in conflict
with each other, but without exception they were all
addressed as those who were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

In
at least two Epistles, according to the Authorized Version,
Christians are addressed as those who are “called to be
saints” (Romans 1:7; I Corinthians 1:2). This is incorrect
and therefore misleading. The italicized words “to be”
should have been left out. Christians are now saints,
already set apart, sanctified. These verses do not
anticipate a time in the future when God’s children will
become saints. Every saved person is as much a saint now as
he ever will be in time or eternity.

Practical Sanctification

This portion of our study shall be given to the matter of
the Christian’s responsibility in Sanctification, that piety
and true holiness which deserve to be seen in the life of
every saved person. As I study my own daily experiences as a
child of God, and observe those with whom I associate in the
Lord’s work, I have a deep conviction that this has been a
neglected phase of Christian doctrine. Many who stress
continually the great doctrine of Justification fail to see
that Practical Sanctification is
equally important. Satan
knows well the power of true Sanctification in the
believer’s life; therefore, it is to the advancement of his
kingdom if he can perpetuate confusion in our minds and
conflict among the brethren.

In
our consideration of Preparatory Sanctification the
sovereignty of God was stressed, and rightly so. God is
sovereign in all matters. However, we who are His children
are wrong when we use His sovereignty as an excuse for our
sinful unwillingness to carry out our responsibility. When
William Carey was pleading for missionaries to carry the
Gospel to unevangelized peoples of the world, a group of
preachers in England tried to silence him with the words,
“If God wants to evangelize the heathen He will do it
without your help or ours.” It was true, and still is, that
God can reach the heathen with the Gospel without the help
of any of us. However, it is equally true that God in His
sovereignty has ordained that men should be the means of
carrying His Gospel to the unevangelized. The sovereignty of
God in sanctifying Jeremiah and Paul to preach His Word, and
that before they were born, did not relieve them of their
responsibility to obey God’s call when it came to them.
Preparatory and Positional Sanctification are entirely the
work of the Triune God, but in the matter of our Practical
Sanctification there is that element of human
responsibility. God does His work perfectly, but in the area
of personal holiness we fail.

Our
standard of living, viewed from the financial and material
side, has risen to an all time high, but our standard of
living, viewed from the spiritual side, has dropped to an
all time low. Christians have time for sports,
entertainment, travel, and socializing, but little or no
time for communion with God in prayer and the study of His
Word. The marvels of saving grace call for a life
corresponding to our exalted position in Christ. The grace
of God which brings Salvation also teaches Sanctification
(Titus 2:11, 12).

When one makes a study of Practical (experiential)
Sanctification, there are some pitfalls to be avoided. One
serious danger is that of interpreting Practical
Sanctification by someone’s personal experience. We must
beware of that disproportionate emphasis on experience which
neglects or omits doctrine. Many of the religious books
coming from the presses today are long on experience but
short on doctrine. We must see all of life’s experiences in
the light of what the Bible teaches. Many persons have been
led astray because they substituted some personal experience
for the teaching of the Word of God. Dr. Chafer said, “Even
if Sanctification were limited to the field of human
experience, there would never be an experience that could be
proven to be its perfect example, nor would any human
statement of that experience exactly describe the full
measure of the divine reality. It is the function of the
Bible to interpret experience, rather than the function of
experience to interpret the Bible. Every experience which is
wrought of God will be found to be according to the
Scriptures.”

Practical Sanctification differs from Positional
Sanctification in that Positional Sanctification is solely
the will and work of the triune God, while the Practical
Sanctification involves human responsibility. “Follow
peace with all men, and holiness (i.e., Sanctification),
without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
This Scripture stresses the pursuit of Practical
Sanctification. Since we are exhorted to pursue it, then it
must be the will of God for His children to do so. “For this
is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should
abstain from fornication” (I Thessalonians 4:3). This aspect
of the believer’s Sanctification is then a matter of choice
on our part. “If a man therefore purge himself from these,
he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for
the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee
also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a
pure heart” (II Timothy 2:21, 22).

Following are other scriptures which exhort the Christian to
self-sanctification: “But as He which hath called you is
holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because
it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy” (I Peter 1:15,
16). “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual
house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices,
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (I Peter 2:5). “Seeing
then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner
of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and
godliness” (II Peter 3:11). “I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). “Having therefore these
promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in
the fear of God” (II Corinthians 7:1). These scriptures do
not promise an eradication of the sin nature nor a state of
perfection of this life, but they do exhort the believer to
self-dedication and surrender to God.

The
purpose of self-sanctification is to prevent sin in the life
of the Christian. This is important because every child of
God, as long as he is in this body, is able to sin. When
Adam sinned he lost the divine image and likeness with which
he was created. However, in the redemptive plan God restores
that image and likeness. “According as He hath chosen us in
Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4).

At
this point in our study we must make the necessary
distinction between Practical Sanctification and that to
which some Christians refer to as “sinless perfection,” an
erroneous concept which teaches that a believer in Christ
can reach a point in life where he will not commit sin
again. The Bible warns against this false view where it
says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us” (I John 1:8). This plain
statement of fact should be followed up with the solemn
warning, “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take
heed lest he fall” (I Corinthians 10:12).
It is dangerous
for any Christian to associate Sanctification with “sinless
perfection” in this life.

In
the case of some Christians, the failure to distinguish
between Sanctification as taught in the Bible and the
deception known as “sinless perfection” results from a
misunderstanding of the New Testament words “perfect,”
“perfected” and “perfection.” When the Bible uses these
terms in connection with us mortals, it refers to spiritual
or ethical maturity whether in a person or the finishing of
a work. Moreover, the word does not always mean the
accomplished end as the net result of a process, but
sometimes it is the process leading to the goal of
consummation. It is the process that we must ever pursue.
“Follow . . . holiness” (Hebrews 12:14), that is, pursue it,
press on after it. The Apostle Paul said, “Not as though I
had already attained, either were already perfect; but I
follow after . . . I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12,
14). Spiritual maturity should be the goal of every saved
person. We should seek it eagerly, endeavor earnestly to
acquire it with urgency, pursue it as a hunter stalks his
game or as an athlete the winning of the race.

Sometimes the word “perfect” is used in the comparative
degree. A person or an object may be said to be more perfect
or less perfect than another person or object. An example of
the comparative degree is seen in Hebrews 9:11 where we
read, “But Christ being come an high priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made
with hands, that is to say, not of this building.” It could
be said that a wife is more perfect than her husband, or
that the husband is less perfect than his wife, yet neither
of them would have at any time attained to “sinless
perfection.”

The
Greek word translated “perfect” is teleios. Its
varied usages in the New Testament shows shades of meaning
far removed from the idea of “sinless perfection.” For
example, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
“Brethren, be not children in understanding; howbeit in
malice be ye children, but in understanding be men” (Gr.
teleios) (I Corinthians 14:20). Here the Apostle is
drawing a contrast between children and adults, exhorting
them, not to “sinless perfection,” but to show forth the
kind of understanding that would be expected of mature
adults. The same word teleios is translated “of full
age” in Hebrews 5:14 where it likewise means spiritual
maturity. The Christian is to be “perfect” in the sense that
he should be spiritually mature in his behavior toward God
and toward his fellow-men.

How
does one pursue Sanctification? How does one mature in the
Christian life? Certainly it is not through struggling nor
self-confidence nor by trying to duplicate those
“experiences” to which others testify. For one thing, growth
takes time. There is no short-cut to spiritual maturity. It
takes twenty-one years before a new born babe reaches the
twenty-first anniversary of his birth. No amount of
struggling or self confidence or mimicking others will speed
up the process. A healthy growth that leads to spiritual
maturity necessitates time. Now it is true that some new
“converts” appear to take off at an extremely fast pace. But
this outward appearance might not be the accurate indicator
of the inner man. Moreover, if there is going to be a
healthy growth, the pace will be modified. Young believers
must not feel that they are not making progress because they
are not surging ahead at a fast rate of speed. This wrong
attitude can lead to discouragement and even disaster.

We
will not mature spiritually if we labor under the false idea
that the Christian is free from temptation. No child of God
is free from temptation, “because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may
devour” (I Peter 5:8). His enticements to do wrong will come
to us through every doorway of sense, nose, eye, ear, mouth
and touch. But it is no sin to be tempted. A young man may
seek to entice a young lady to engage in sinful sex, and the
girl might be tempted to do so; however, no one can accuse
her of indiscretion if she has kept the door shut against
her tempter. Every Christian is tempted, but temptation does
not necessarily lead to sin. We can be tempted by Satan (I
Corinthians 7:5; I Thessalonians 3:5), by the natural
desires of the old unregenerate nature (Galatians 4:14;
James 1:14), by other persons (Matthew 16:1; 19:3). But God
has made provision for His own so that they need not yield
to the temptation. “There hath no temptation taken you but
such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will
with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may
be able to bear it” (I Corinthians 10:13). Every temptation
can result in blessing if when we are tempted we are driven
to God’s Word and prayer and win the victory.

First, consider the importance of the Word of God in
the Christian’s Practical Sanctification.

This aspect of Sanctification was in view in our Lord’s
prayer, where He prayed, “Sanctify them through thy truth;
thy word is truth” (John 17:17). To the child of God who
reads and studies the Bible, it becomes a cleansing,
sanctifying power in life. “Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy
word” (Psalm 119:9). When we meditate in God’s Word, the
truth of God has its own inherent power to prevent sin. It
becomes a stronghold in temptation. The Psalmist wrote, “Thy
word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against
thee” (Psalm 119:11). Our Lord said to His disciples, “Now
ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you”
(John 15:3). Of the righteous man it is written, “The law of
his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide” (Psalm 37:31). Paul had this same idea in view when he said,
“. . . Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for
it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:25, 26). Peter likewise
stresses the same truth where he writes, “As newborn babes,
desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow
thereby” (I Peter 2:2).

If
the problem in the Christian life is to bring our practice
up to our position, then let us become men and women of the
Word. Practical holiness will manifest itself as we set
ourselves apart to search the scriptures. God’s Word is the
active agent the Holy Spirit uses to this end. I cannot know
the will of God for my life if I neglect the Word of God.
The miracle of being transformed into the likeness of Jesus
Christ does not take place in an instant; it is a day-by-day
process wrought in us by the Holy Spirit through the
sanctifying power of the Word of God. “For the Word of God
is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the diving asunder of soul and
spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of
the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).

Second, know and reckon on the fact that
you are dead to sin and self.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him. . .”
(i.e.; Christ) (Romans 6:6). Beware of the false theory which
wrongly uses this verse to teach that a Christian by an act
of his own will can die to self. It is not possible for a
Christian to die to self. As a matter of fact, I have never
met an advocate of the “death to self” movement who could
tell me how I might die to self. The difficulty arises from
a failure to examine the Greek text in which there is
nothing to support the theory of self-crucifixion or dying
to self. The verb in Romans 6:6 is in the past tense, so
that the correct translation reads, “Knowing this, that our
old man was crucified with Christ.” The reference is not to
something the Christian must try to accomplish, but to the
perfect and completed work of Christ. The exhortation is not
to try to die to self by some effort of our own, but to
realize that when Christ died on the cross we did die to
self with Him. This is positional truth, and it is important
that we continually reckon ourselves dead to self. The death
of Christ not only atones for the penalty of sin, but it has
power to deliver us from the practice of sin. This is a
mighty truth that we must “know” and on which we need to
“reckon” continuously.

Third, Christians are exhorted to yield their bodies
to God.

“I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that
ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
The surrender of our bodies to God is absolutely essential
to Practical Sanctification. The body is not the entire man,
but it is the vehicle of the human spirit and the temple of
the Holy Spirit. Our bodies belong to God by a two-fold
right, His right by creation and by redemption. “What? Know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I
Corinthians 6:19, 20). Sin manifests itself through the
members of the body. “Neither yield ye your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God”
(Romans 6:13). This includes even that “little member”
(James 3:5) which too often hurts the membership. It is by
means of our bodies that God gets His work done. He chose to
save us through a body, thus the necessity of the
Incarnation. Jesus said, “A body Thou hast prepared Me”
(Hebrews 10:5). The holy man of God will honor God with his
body. The Apostle Paul testified, “But I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I
have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (I
Corinthians 9:27).

Total self-dedication to God is the result of
self-determined separation to God. Make up your mind that
unless you yield yourself to God you will not experience a
life of holiness. Victory over any sin is the result of
self-sanctification.

Fourth, Practical Sanctification involves
the surrender of the will.

The
Christian is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and must therefore
be led by the Spirit. The will of God is all-important in
the life of the child of God. And how does God guide us? He
guides us through His Word. Basically, God’s will is found
in God’s Word. “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light
unto my path” (Psalm 119:105). But closely related to
guidance by the scriptures is the work of the Holy Spirit in
us. He gives guidance to those who sincerely want His will
and who are already walking in obedience to the light which
they received from the Word. Any person who is truly saved
and who sincerely wants God’s will shall have it. “For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God” (Romans 8:14). The will of God is the present sphere of
Christian obligation. “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but
understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Ephesians
5:17). Each believer plays an important role in his own
Practical Sanctification as he finds and follows and
finishes God’s will for his life. The Christian who is out
of God’s will is an unsaintly saint.

Fifth, we sanctify ourselves when we walk in the
Spirit.

“This I say then, walk in (by) the Spirit, and ye shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). The verb
walk (Greek peripateite) is in the present tense and
means to keep on walking by the Spirit. Christians in this
dispensation are blessed with the permanent indwelling of
the Holy Spirit who is the divine enablement for our living
a holy life. What is impossible for the Christian who is
resisting or grieving or quenching the Holy Spirit is
possible for the one who is walking by the Spirit. When we
sin against the Spirit we break fellowship with him, thereby
cutting ourselves off from the supply of His power. “Quench
not the Spirit” (I Thessalonians 5:15), and “Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30), and your life will be
blessed.

Perfect Sanctification

Perfect (or ultimate) Sanctification is that aspect of
Sanctification related to the final perfection of the
children of God. It will not be realized while we are in
this mortal body. Perfect Sanctification is the final step
in the sanctifying process. Like Preparatory and Positional
Sactification, it is wholly the work of God.

Paul wrote about this in closing his First Epistle to the
Thessalonians. “And the very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ” (I Thessalonians 5:23). When Christ returns the
believer’s Sanctification will be complete. The word wholly
(Greek {olotelhs}) is found only here in the New Testament
and is made up of two words, “complete” and “end.” The ideas
of wholeness and completion are in view, meaning entire
Sanctification, through and through, the whole of you, every
part of you. It means to be complete and sound in every
part. Now this process of Sanctification goes on during the
present life here on earth, but it will be perfected at
(Greek en), not “until,” the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This passage is not an attempt to analyze the
constituent parts of man; therefore it is not a proof text
in support of trichotomy (the three-fold nature of man).
What is in view here is the perfect Sanctification of the
whole man, the time of its accomplishment, at “the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ,” and the fact that God Himself will
bring it to pass, for “Faithful is He that calleth you, who
also will do it” (verse 24).

The
Epistle of Jude commences and concludes with a similar
emphasis. It was written “to them that are sanctified by God
the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ” (verse 1), and all
such are assured that God “is able to keep you from falling,
and to present you faultless before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy” (verse 24). This is Perfect
Sanctification.

Perfect Sanctification is the goal God has set for every
believer. “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will” (Ephesians 1:5). The Adoption (Greek
huiothesia) is not a word of relationship, not the
making of a son, but son-placing. Some students make the
mistake of confusing Adoption with Regeneration. In
Regeneration the believing sinner is made a son of God. In
Adoption the regenerated son of God is placed in the
position of perfect sonship. The Adoption is not experienced
in this life while we remain in this mortal body. All the
redeemed are assured of their Adoption (Galatians 4:4, 5) by
virtue of the indwelling Holy Spirit who is called “the
Spirit of adoption” (Romans 8:15); however, we do not
actually experience it until Christ returns for us and our
bodies are redeemed. Paul wrote, “. . . Even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, that is,
the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Perfect sonship is that for which we are waiting. If we had
it now we would not be waiting for it. There is never any
danger of Christians not becoming perfectly Sanctified. The
Apostle Paul said that through the indwelling Holy Spirit
“ye are sealed unto the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
Because God did “predestinate (us) to be conformed to the
image of His Son” (Romans 8:28), the glorious goal of our
Adoption is assured.

Before the ages God planned to bestow upon the redeemed a
glory, unique and appropriate only to the Church in Christ.
In ages to come the Church will display that glory because
the God of all grace “hath called us unto His eternal glory
by Christ Jesus” (I Peter 5:10). Indeed this is a special
kind of glory, even the perfection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Whereunto He called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (II Thessalonians 2:14).
In other words, when God called us it was with the view that
we should obtain the glorified state. Verse 13 says that the
Holy Spirit is the agent in “sanctification” to that
glorious end. The glory of the revelation of the Lord from
heaven will be shared by Christ’s Church at that day
(Colossians 3:4).

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is”
(I John 3:2).

Dear Reader - are you at peace with God? If not, you
can be. Do you know what awaits you when you die? You can have
the assurance from God that heaven will be your home, if you would like
to be certain. Either Jesus Christ died for your sins, or He didn't (He
did!). Are you prepared to stand before God on the Judgment Day
and tell Him that you didn't need
the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross to have your sins forgiven and
get in right-standing with God? We plead with you ... please don't make
such a tragic mistake.

To get to know God; to be at
peace with God; to have your sins forgiven; to make certain heaven will
be your home for eternity; to make certain that you are in right-standing with
God right now ... please
click hereto help understand the
importance of being reconciled to God. What you do about being reconciled
to God will determine where you will spend eternity, precious one. Your
decision to be reconciled to God is the most important decision you'll ever make
in this life.

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